Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Left to his own devices, John Adams might have lived out his days as a Massachusetts country lawyer, devoted to his family and friends. As it was, events swiftly overtook him, and Adams--who, David McCullough writes, was "not a man of the world" and not fond of politics--came to greatness as the second president of the United States, and one of the most distinguished of a generation of revolutionary leaders. He found reason to dislike sectarian wrangling even more in the aftermath of war, when Federalist and anti-Federalist factions vied bitterly for power, introducing scandal into an administration beset by other difficulties--including pirates on the high seas, conflict with France and England, and all the public controversy attendant in building a nation.

Overshadowed by the lustrous presidents Washington and Jefferson, who bracketed his tenure in office, Adams emerges from McCullough's brilliant biography as a truly heroic figure--not only for his significant role in the American Revolution but also for maintaining his personal integrity in its strife-filled aftermath. McCullough spends much of his narrative examining the troubled friendship between Adams and Jefferson, who had in common a love for books and ideas but differed on almost every other imaginable point. Reading his pages, it is easy to imagine the two as alter egos. (Strangely, both died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.) But McCullough also considers Adams in his own light, and the portrait that emerges is altogether fascinating. --Gregory McNamee Book Description

In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life-journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who thought, wrote, and spoke out for the "Great Cause" come what might, who traveled far and wide in all seasons and often at extreme risk; who rose to become the second President of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was rightly celebrated for his integrity, and regarded by some as "out of his senses"; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the moving love stories in American history.

Much about John Adam's life will come as a surprise to many. His rocky relationship with friend and eventual archrival Thomas Jefferson, his courageous voyage on the frigate Boston in the winter of 1778 and his later trek over the Pyrenees are exploits few would have dared and that few listeners will ever forget.

Like his masterful, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography Truman, David McCullough's John Adams has the sweep and vitality of a great novel. This is history on a grand scale -- an audiobook about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, it is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

One of the Finest Biographical Novels I've Read
McCullough's skills are well documented (fascinating fact: none of his books have ever been out of print!) but they are appreciated to the utmost degree in this wonderful biography of John Adams.The writing is personal enough to give you a real sense of the emotions of John, Abigail and many of the other actors who John encounters in his momentous life.The history lesson is indeed educational -- even if you consider yourself well educated, there are aspects of the struggle for independence, the Revolutionary War, his travels to Europe and his presidency that will enlighten you.Most significantly for me was the depth of the struggle for independence and the role that John Adams played.It is very clear, after reading McCullough's account, that many players contributed to the breakaway from England, but none contributed more than John Adams.When rattling off the "founding fathers", I would typically get through quite a few names before getting to his...no more.John Adams' contributions were in the same gravity as Washington and Jefferson.The paperback version of this book is over 800 pages, but McCullough's writing hurtles you over that obstacle quickly.It is a wonderful read!

Reads like a story...
McCullough writes another wonderful book. John Adams seemed to have been the "forgotten founder" for a long while. Recently he has been revealed to be one of the most important founders.

McCullough goes into great detail of all the great accomplishments of John Adams. McCullough also informs the reader when Adams made a decision that was not for the best, although those were few and far between with all of Adams great accomplishments.

The relationship between Abagail and John is one that needs to be remembered by all historians and students of history. Their love for one another and their near constant letters to one another helped them get through the very difficult times.

McCullough also investigates the relationship between two great founders in Adams and Jefferson. He details their friendship when they were abroad (and during the Declaration of Independence) and their split when they ran against each other for President. The relationship came full circle with the men writing letters back and forth as they aged. Perhaps a coincidence or fate both men died on the 50th anniversery of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1826).

This is a must read and is most likely THE biography on Adams.

McCullough's writing style allows the reader to breeze through the lengthy book and understand the achievements of John Adams life. Must read for Revolutionary fans, and fans of American History.

The Overlooked Adams
kudos for David McCollough, once again, in writing an interesting and certainly revealing book about one of the most disparaged of our founding fathers.
This biography sets the record straight about John Adam's integrity, ingenuity, and genius. He rightly has been credited as the man who saved the constitution. He did make some mistakes later on, but they didn't have modern political analysts to help steer them clear of political land mines back then.
Read it twice, and going to do it again. Its that good.
Would that every scholar could research and honestly write as David McCullough. That's the highest praise I can think of.

this belongs on every americans bookshelf
If you a) like a good read, b) love history the way it should be written,c) all of the above, read this book. It tells the story of how the People who started our country felt, the living, breathing, people, who were just as confused about life as we are, but they knew one thing, something had to change, and they had to do it. I know why this book got the Pulitzer prize, and it should be on the required reading list of every college.David McCullough got it right, and then some.

A Requiem for American Leaders?
Might as well! With incredible stories about men with integrity, candor and valor, like the ones in this book, contemporary leaders who are oftentimes venal and corrupt don't stand a chance! It's a shame such leaders are a rare commodity these days!

Unlike our current leaders, John Adams was an incredible man and a patriotic maverick that helped bring America into the marvel it is today. His undeniable acumen and astute sense of logic made him a likely person to work on drafting the most important and currently under attack document in American history: The Constitution.

The book is rife with countless stories that are incredible on their own merit, that's why it's hard to pick and choose what to spotlight. However, I have to say that the most endearing and at times heartbreaking element in this biography was the correspondence between John Adams and his wife, Abigail Adams. So much of John Adams' soft and tender self was exposed in these letters and that definitely added a greater depth to an already great man.

Adams' integrity is also something very evident throughout the book. You see it in his practice as a lawyer, his relationship with his wife and family, his defiant stance in the face of the British being well aware that hanging was the punishment for treason, his unwavering desire to declare independence and write the Bill of Rights document. He was a visionary with a goal in mind and the right tools to get the job done. He never balked at hardship or challenge. He put his very life on the line protecting an idea he believed in. Alas, that's something I can't say about any of our current leaders.

John Adams is a great role model for all Americans and non-Americans alike. The story of his very accomplished and amazingly interesting life should be cherished and experienced and what a better medium to deliver that experience than a David McCullough book! Read it to get a glimpse of what real men and leaders are all about and maybe then you can make a prayer that one like John Adams comes along in the not very far future. ... Read more

Book Description

Listen to a ten-minute interview with Margaret Hogan
Host: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane

Read Margaret Hogan's HUP blog posting: "The Romance of John and Abigail Adams"

Watch the video of The Massachusetts Historical Society's November 2007 event at which Deval and Diane Patrick, Edward and Victoria Kennedy, and Michael and Kitty Dukakis read selected letters from My Dearest Friend

Visit the Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive

Watch the March 2008 HBO miniseries--"John Adams"--based on David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography

In 1762, John Adams penned a flirtatious note to "Miss Adorable," the 17-year-old Abigail Smith. In 1801, Abigail wrote to wish her husband John a safe journey as he headed home to Quincy after serving as president of the nation he helped create. The letters that span these nearly forty years form the most significant correspondence--and reveal one of the most intriguing and inspiring partnerships--in American history.

As a pivotal player in the American Revolution and the early republic, John had a front-row seat at critical moments in the creation of the United States, from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to negotiating peace with Great Britain to serving as the first vice president and second president under the U.S. Constitution. Separated more often than they were together during this founding era, John and Abigail shared their lives through letters that each addressed to "My Dearest Friend," debating ideas and commenting on current events while attending to the concerns of raising their children (including a future president).

Full of keen observations and articulate commentary on world events, these letters are also remarkably intimate. This new collection--including some letters never before published--invites readers to experience the founding of a nation and the partnership of two strong individuals, in their own words. This is history at its most authentic and most engaging.

Customer Reviews (5)

My Dearest Friend
My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams

Well written

John & Abigail Adams
Slow reading.Getting through the speech patterns and phonetic spelling is a little tedious.Good incite into this couple's life.

The John and Abigail Adams' Correspondence Updated
This finely-produced book is the successor volume to "The Book of Abigail and John" (1975), also published by Harvard University Press (also reviewed on Amazon).However, there are importance differences between the two volumes.The 1975 collection contained 226 letters, covering the period 1752-1784.The present edition contains 289 letters, and continues until 1801, including John's service as Vice President and President. The present volume editors have largely avoided making updating corrections to capitalization and spellings, so one gets a rather interesting insight into how New Englanders of the period employed English to suit their own purposes.Unlike the 1975 collection, which contained editorial notes, diary entries and letters from other correspondents, here the letters pretty much stand alone.This has advantages (since it is pure Adams coming through) and disadvantages (annotations are missing that might have helpfully explained terms and identified individuals). A number of helpful illustrations (some in beautiful color) are collected in the center of the book.But the treasure here is the letters themselves.What a love story.I defy anyone to read these letters and not emerge with boundless admiration for Abigail.Considering that John was absent for years at a time, it fell to her to keep the homefires burning, raise the children, and deal with various challenges.What emerges is a quite literate Abigail, though she never benefitted from higher education, who seems to have an apt bit of poetry to cite for any occasion.The letters contain frank comments about folks like Hamilton, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and others.They also reveal exactly how thin skinned John was, which condition was perpetually getting him into difficulties. Helpful introductions by Joseph Ellis and the editors, as well as a comprehensive index, add to the value of the volume. It is hard to think of a book that better captures the spirit of this period for the reader.

The Mail
A significant collection of correspondence from the time of the founding of our nation. This decades long string of communication between the often-separated Mr. and Mrs. Adams is informative about those times on several planes: diplomatic, political, social, agricultural, and family. Winding throughout is the strong bond between a talented but thin-skinned politician, John, and his wise, supportive, and self-reliant wife, Abigail.

The book's editors did a nice job of keeping their explanatory comments to a useful, but minimal level. A clean text is thus provided, which keeps the focus on the letters as written.

A treasure trove of insight into the our nations past...
This collection of letters between Abigail and John Adams are a treasure trove of information and insight into the begining of our nation.Mr. and Mrs. Adams were very talented writers which makes reading the letters a pleasure.The topics cover a myraid of topics from politics (and it is interesting to see the effect Mrs. Adams excerted on her husband's political bent), to the flirtations, to the day to day events Wedding Funerals, ect..There is so much here on so many levels, but I think what it does best is give the reader a personal glimpse into the period and the relationship between a president and his wife.This will make a great Christamas gift for the American history buff.Highly recommended! ... Read more

Book Description
In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as "out of his senses"; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the most moving love stories in American history.

This is history on a grand scale -- a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Book Terrible Recording
Don't get me wrong, this is a terrific book.David McCullough has written another winner.And Edward Herrmann is still my favorite narrator of audio books.But the engineers must have been on strike because all throughout this audio book you can hear Mr. Herrmann breathing through his nose, smacking his lips and exhaling.
Still, I'm glad I purchased this audio book in spite of the strange recording.It's wonderful. ... Read more

Book Description
The Letters of John and Abigail Adams provides an insightful record of American life before, during, and after the Revolution; the letters also reveal the intellectually and emotionally fulfilling relationship between John and Abigail that lasted fifty-four years and withstood historical upheavals, long periods apart, and personal tragedies. Covering key moments in American history-the Continental Congress, the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and John Adams's diplomatic missions to Europe-the letters reveal the concerns of a couple living during a period of explosive change, from smallpox and British warships to raising children, paying taxes, the state of women, and the emerging concepts of American democracy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Go for it!
If you're at all interested in American history, I HIGHLY recommend this book. I though it was going to be dry and tough to read with a lot of thees and thous etc., but it's surprisingly warm, easy to follow and gripping story told in the very words of one of our greatest Americans and his wife.

The loving letters of our second president and his wife abigail: brilliance in Braintree!
John Adams was the first Vice-President and second chief
executive of the United States of America. He was also a brilliant lawyer, legislator, writer and diplomat for the fledging American nation in France and the Netherlands during
the Revolutionary War.
In this excellent collection of personal letters John and
Abigail share their thoughts on a wide variety of topics chiefly the struggle for our nation's independence. The letters in this
copious collection cover the years from 1774 to 1783 (the years
of the American Revolution).
These are two extremely intelligent persons! John's letters
let the reader look through the keyhole in Philadelphia as the
Declaration of Independence is approved; throughout the war
Adams was away from his Braintree farm for long stretches of
time. His life was in danger and he was worried about Abigail and
their young children. A few of the letters in this collection
were written by his parents to the young John Quincy Adams who
served as the sixth President of the United States.
Abigail lived long before the womens liberation movement but
she was the intellectual equal of her husband. Abigail kept the
farm going staying abreast of political affairs and raising a
great American family.
The patriotism and self-sacrifice of the Adams family is an
inspiration to all Americans. This is a wonderful collection
for anyone wishing to know these two American patriots on a more
intimate basis. Excellent resource for history classes and anyone wishing to know more about our history. ... Read more

Book Description
In this highly praised biography of the formative years of the America's second president, Mrs. Bowen portrays John Adams within the context of colonial America and examines the momentous events that forged a new nation and the character of our second president. This is an old-fashioned biography, beautifully written, passionately interested in its subject. Mrs. Bowen's primary aim is to convey the temper of mind and intellectual curiosity of a man who many consider the most brilliant individual to have ever held the high office of the presidency. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Biography!
John Adams and the American Revolution by Catherine
Drinker Bowen is a great biography of John Adams.
Ms. Bowen spends a great amount of time on the childhood and young manhood of Adams. She also touches on his great marriage life. This is a book that I enjoyed perhaps even more than David
McCullough's biography titled John Adams, though this book was good. I usually stay away from biographies and read more of the reference type books, I'll have to say though that this book kept my interest to the end.

Excellent biography of John Adams
This book was an excellent portrait of how John Adams matured over the years from age 10 up until the signing of the Declaration of Independence, particularly how a loyal British subject became one of the primary moversof separation from the British Crown. It is a great narrative describingthe slow movement from loyal individual colonies to a united country.Significant historical figures are included with more than a passingmention since they were colleagues of his, including Sam Adams, ThomasHutchison and many more. It reads like an historical novel, not a textbook.If you want to get an interesting flavor for this portion of Americanhistory, I highly recommend this book. ... Read more

Book Description
John Adams comes to vivid life for young readers in this addition to Harness's acclaimed presidential picture-biographies. Dynamic artwork and lively narrative create a warm, personable portrait of the stubborn man from Braintree, Massachusetts, whose passion for liberty spurred him on to extraordinary roles as a Founding Father, first Vice President, and second President of the United States. Through Adams's eyes, kids witness the tension-enflamed streets of Boston, the bickering Continental Congress, the complexities of waging the War for Independence, and the challenges of governing a new nation. Vivid quotes from both John and Abigail Adams provide great primary source material for school reports, and three illustrated maps show readers where key events took place.


"How wonderful now to see his story told for children in such an appealing fashion. Cheryl Harness's illustrations and text are first rate, appropriately full of life and understanding." —David McCullough, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of John Adams ... Read more

Book Description
The John Adams Reader: Essential Writings on an American Composer gathers a colorful and wide-ranging selection of pieces from leading musical commentators and critics. Included are revealing interviews with the composer as well as eloquent essays by Ingram Marshall, Michael Steinberg, Alex Ross, Sarah Cahill, Alan Rich, and many others. Editor Thomas May has grouped this collection into four sections: profiles of the artist (including a fascinating memory piece from Ingram Marshall on Adams's early San Francisco years), detailed essays on the major works, interviews with some leading collaborators and interpreters, and critical reception. This reader should be of use both as an introduction for the general reader to a preeminently significant American artist and as a reference for the more serious student or scholar. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A "must-read" portrait for anyone striving to better understand both the artist and his musical art
The John Adams Reader presents an anthology of writings by a wide variety of authors about one of the most frequently performed American composers in the realm of classical music. Friends and collaborators of John Adams, including director Peter Sellers, conductor Robert Spano, performers Emanuel Ax and Dawn Upshaw, and friend Ingram Marshall, as well as extensive interviews with John Adams himself, allow for a thorough tour of his personality, his musical works, collaborators and interpreters, his critical reception, controversies about his work and his political views, and much more. As accessible to lay readers as it is to advanced music students and practitioners, The John Adams Reader is a "must-read" portrait for anyone striving to better understand both the artist and his musical art, presenting the compiled wit and charm of expert musicians.

Essays by People who Know Him
John Adams is probably the most performed living American composer of classical music. And in this book, really a tribute to Mr. Adams, some sixty writers have written on some aspect of John Adams life. The essays are broken down into four major categories: Portraits of the Artist, The Musical Works, Collaborators and Interpreters, and Critical Reception. The book is biographical in part, talking of Mr. Adams early years and his decision to spend his life writing music. Other aspects of the book discuss most of his major works from looking at the content and then critically.

The writers of these essays are a who's who of the classical music world. They include performers (Emanuel Ax, Sarah Cahill), critics (Justin Davidson, Rupert Christiansen), composers (Ingram Marshall, David Schiff), critics (Renaud Machart, Alan Rich), directors (Robert Spano, Peter Spano), professors (Richard Taruskin, Arthur C. Danto), and of course Thomas May who basically put this whole book together. ... Read more

Book Description
Edited and Compiled by Doug Phillips

Born in 1767, John Quincy Adams entered his country's service while a mere lad as secretary to the Russian Embassy and remained through life a public servant, filling successively the posts of secretary, ambassador, United States Senator, Secretary of State, President, and finally Representative in Congress.

However, all of these remarkable achievements are secondary to his role as father. Though a busy man, Adams made it his priority to study the Bible and to train his son to love God's Holy Word. His example stands out for all men as a shepherd who loved his family flock. This volume contains nine personal letters of counsel and admonition that he penned to his son while traveling away from home. ... Read more

Book Description
America's finest eighteenth-century student of political science,John Adams is also the least studied of the Revolution's key figures. By thetime he became our second president, no American had written more about ourgovernment and not even Jefferson or Madison had read as widely about questionsof human nature, natural right, political organization, and constitutionalconstruction. Yet this staunch constitutionalist is perceived by many as havingbecome reactionary in his later years and his ideas have been largelydisregarded.

In the first major work on Adams's political thought in over thirty years, C.Bradley Thompson takes issue with the notion that Adams's thought is irrelevantto the development of American ideas. Focusing on Adams's major writings,Thompson elucidates and reevaluates his political and constitutional thought byinterpreting it within the tradition of political philosophy stretching fromPlato to Montesquieu.

This major revisionist study shows that the distinction Adams drew between"principles of liberty" and "principles of political architecture" is central tohis entire political philosophy. Thompson first chronicles Adams'sconceptualization of moral and political liberty during his confrontation withAmerican Loyalists and British imperial officers over the true nature of justiceand the British Constitution, illuminating Adams's two most important pre- Revolutionary essays, "A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law" and "TheLetters of Novanglus." He then presents Adams's debate with French philosophersover the best form of government and provides an extended analysis of hisDefence of the Constitutions of Government and Discourses on Davila todemonstrate his theory of political architecture.

From these pages emerges a new John Adams. In reexamining his political thought,Thompson reconstructs the contours and influences of Adams's mental universe,the ideas he challenged, the problems he considered central to constitution- making, and the methods of his reasoning. Skillfully blending history andpolitical science, Thompson's work shows how the spirit of liberty animatedAdams's life and reestablishes this forgotten Revolutionary as an independentand important thinker.

This book is part of the American Political Thought series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

John Adams - American Hero
The most critical period of American history actually occurred after the revolution. The instability of anarchy threatened to make the ideas expressed in Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and the heroic successes of Washington nothing more than a forgotten dream. Another hero, one who would be willing to chronicle all previous forms of government and guide the architects of the constitution in creating something entirely new was what was needed. He was more than just another name on the list of American presidents. That hero was John Adams.
Thank you, C. Bradley Thompson, for this inspirational account of an often overlooked and undervalued intellectual giant among the American John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty by C. Bradley Thompson
founders.

The Mind of Adams
Enjoy one of the biographies of John Adams, then read this superb book to complete the story of this great man.Mr. Thompson is a fine writer and can be seen on an old CSPAN segment giving a lecture on Adams.His grasp of President Adams's work and his ability to explain it are unmatched.

Knowing the Ideas of the Founders

To return America to its original foundation of freedom and individual rights, it is vital that we know the ideas of the men who created that system. This important task will be easier thanks to this book by C. Bradley Thompson. Readers interested in the Founding period and its legacy for our own time will not want to miss this book.

John Adams: Second American President; First American Psycho
I am floored! I started reading biographies of John Adams after the musical "1776" piqued my interest in him and have absorbed at least 20 of them since then. I don't know how this 1998 title flew underneath my radar until 2004 but it did ... and I think NOW, after the 2004 election, is the time when every American needs to know what he did for us ... or TRIED to ... including: pointing the way for those of us who CAN to start doing something about the mess we're in now. His insistence on basing our government structure on actual human nature instead of a fantasized ideal of how human nature ought to be may be the only reason we've lasted even this long. Communism went down because it flew in the face of this wisdom. We could be next. Thompson shows that Adams was not only a political theorist, he was a scientifically oriented psychologist. So am I. And I know that he had a handle on psychological reality that exceeds what most modern psychological theorists can lay claim to. He was an Adlerian more than a century before Adler was a gleam in his father's eye. May ALL the Gods bless C. B. Thompson for what he has done ... and may his publisher start doing a better job of getting this book before the public.

The Atlas of America
I just finished reading C. Bradley Thompson's "John Adams and The Spirit of Liberty," and am in awe; not only of John Adams but of Dr. Thompson's masterful explication of Adams' political thought.

I had no idea what a debt of gratitude I owed to one man, John Adams, who more than any other Founding Father developed and provided the intellectual framework that became the Constitution of the United States.At the very least this book should be required reading for any person who is interested in pursuing a career in politics.

To all of you who are interested in understanding the intellectual founding of this country I urge you to read this book.You won't be able to put it down.

And to C. Bradley Thompson, I salute you and thank you for your efforts in resurrecting the reputation and honor of this great man. ... Read more

Book Description
Following his single term as President of the United States (1825-1829), John Quincy Adams, embittered by his loss to Andrew Jackson, boycotted his successor's inauguration, just as his father John Adams had done (the only two presidents ever to do so). Rather than retire, the sixty-two-year-old former president, U.S. senator, secretary of state, and Harvard professor was elected by his Massachusetts friends and neighbors to the House of Representatives to throw off the "incubus of Jacksonianism." It was the opening chapter in what was arguably the most remarkable post-presidency in American history.

In this engaging biography, historian Joseph Wheelan describes Adams's battles against the House Gag Rule that banished abolition petitions; the removal of Eastern Indian tribes; and the annexation of slave-holding Texas, while recounting his efforts to establish the Smithsonian Institution. As a "man of the whole country," Adams was not bound by political party, yet was reelected to the House eight times before collapsing at his "post of duty" on February 21, 1848, and then dying in the House Speaker's office. His funeral evoked the greatest public outpouring since Benjamin Franklin's death. Mr. Adams's Last Crusade will enlighten and delight anyone interested in American history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

American Hero
John Quincy Adams is never on any list of great presidents.But he should be near the top of any list of great Americans, right up there with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr.Joseph Wheelan's excellent new book explains why.Adams had an extraordinary political career, both before and after his single term as president.Wheelan's book focuses on Adams's seventeen-year Congressional career, which began in 1831, two years after Adams left the White House.During this period, Adams fought for women's rights and against President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Bill, which forced Native Americans to give up their traditional lands.Adams was also an unrelenting enemy of slavery, and did all in his power to fight it (see the movie Amistad).His many speeches against the "peculiar institution" caused northerners to refer to him affectionately as "Old Man Eloquent".Southerners sent him hate mail and death threats, and called him by a different name: The Madman From Massachusetts.Adams became the conscience of Congress and of the very nation itself.
Joseph Wheelan has written an important, very well written book that rescues one of America's greatest men from near obscurity.Adams is far more deserving of immortality than his arch-rival, Andrew Jackson. Read Joseph Wheelan's outstanding book and you will understand why. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Who is the real John Quincy Adams? The brilliant secretary of state, prime mover behind the Monroe Doctrine, and principled opponent of slavery, defender of the Africans shanghaied aboard the Amistad? Or the ineffectual president stymied by a hostile Congress and his own self-righteousness, the vindictive political foe famed for his cold, disagreeable character? Paul C. Nagel, author of two previous books about the Adams family, seeks to give readers a more human Adams (1767-1848) whose complex nature contained many contradictions. John Quincy Adams is a valuable revisionist biography of a misunderstood figure at the crossroads of American history.Book Description

John Quincy Adams was raised, educated, and groomed to be President, following in the footsteps of his father, John. At fourteen he was secretary to the Minister to Russia and, later, was himself Minister to the Netherlands and Prussia. He was U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, and then President for one ill-fated term. His private life showed a parallel descent. He was a poet, writer, critic, and Professor of Oratory at Harvard. He married a talented and engaging Southerner, but two of his three sons were disappointments. This polymath and troubled man, caught up in both a democratic age not to his understanding and the furies of passion, was an American lion in winter.

Customer Reviews (46)

Enjoyable and Informative
I'm nearly at the halfway point of my mission to read a biography of each President. I would put this bio in the top third of those I've read for a variety of reasons.

First, it was the perfect length. JQA was an important President but was he TJ, Roosevelt, Truman, Nixon, Lincoln... no. Nothing that important happened when he was President at least in a very broad, international sense. I'm very glad the author didn't lengthen the biography and make it detailed to a fault just to make it look like he did more research or overvalued the importance of JQA.

JQA was quite a character. Clearly he was an intelligent man. I loved the way the author talked about what JQA read. In fact, I might even read some of those books myself because as with nearly every President, they gathered most of their intelligence from reading on their own. I liked the fact that the author included all the info about JQA's literary, research and professorship.

I didn't get the point of how the author pointed out JQA's schedule so often, when he got up, what he did all day, that got a bit old.

Other than that, it was really a great biography that shed a lot of light on this man.

A few things I found interesting about JQA that the author did a good job detailing.

1. Abigail and John Adams really put a lot of pressure on their son. That was very apparent and made JQA a sympathetic person at times.

2. JQA was a stick in the mud a lot of times so it is easy to see why a lot of people didn't like him. It also explains why his presidency isn't held in such high regard. I thought it very telling that on Andrew Jackson's deathbed JQA was very uncomplementary. I would've hated to cross him.

3. And perhaps this is the most interesting. JQA couldn't rise above the pressure that was put on him by his parents. He passed that pressure on to his kids, causing one to kill himself. Of course, I do think he mellowed as he got older which the author detailed allowing him to become a sympathetic figure again.

Lastly, how about the fact that JQA died pretty much in congress. Wow, what dedication.

Good bio that I would recommend.

THE LIFE OF THE PARTY
It was obvious from tne start that John Quincy Adams was going to be a great man,like it or not. His father,John, second in his class at Harvard, immediately began bombarding the youth with Greek, Latin, English and history. His mother, Abigail Smith of Mayflower descent, simultaneously joined the festivities,instilling areligious morality that might have frightened Calvin himself.Trips abroad with Quincy's father were to be educative,with little time to be "wasted".Little wonder that J.Q. would also graduate secondin his Harvard stint. The real surprise to this reviewer is that the future 6th president ever married since he seemingly knew nothing about intimacy, only work and duty.His beratings and impudence towards his wife are carefully preserved, perhaps sadly. Certainly no family wrote or retained more for future historians.That he was a competent diplomat, an historic Secretary of State under Monroe, and a highly respected Representative for Massachusetts until his death in 1848 (stricken on the floor of The House) is almost completely forgotten.It's simply that his presidency was a complete bust,due mostly to the infamous alleged "corrupt deal" with Henry Clay in the election of 1824. No president was better trained for theoffice, few presidents were treated more callously by Congress.(Which came first,the chicken or the egg)?Paul Nagel writes an anecdotal, not too heavy biography of a difficult man. The results are generally favorable to the reader, even if the subject himself tends not to be, Is there a psycho-historian in the house?

An inexcusably poor biography
After noting the ratings and browsing the titles of other reviewers, I realize I am in the minority in the low review I have given this book. I find it even more peculiar given my disposition to normally be quite favorable in my reviews. I will not flinch, however, in my belief that this biography is ill conceived, inadequately researched, and poorly written.

First, I will tackle why this book is ill conceived. Nagel makes the assertion that he will be able to add knew insight into the inner workings of John Quincy Adams, a task he points out that no previous biographer has been fully successful, by writing a biography utilizing JQA's diary. This certainly seems like an acceptable approach but in practice Nagel simply uses it as an excuse to write a biography without doing any real research. In fact, you will not find a single footnote in this entire volume, simply an explanation basically telling you that his primary research was JQA's diary with the gaps filled in by other biographers work. Even more inexplicable, beyond a couple of lines of poetry, Nagel never quotes directly from JQAs diary except for short sentences or phrases trapped within his mechanical prose. The dumbfounding outcome of this is a book that purports to tell JQAs story utilizing his diary, yet never gives the reader any sense of what JQAs diary was actually like.

The preceding criticism might be overlooked had Nagel actually written an enjoyable biography. Unfortunately, Nagel's writing is as lazy and thoughtless as his research. Nagel makes no effort to craft his work in a way that would be appropriate to his subject matter or complement his desire to use JQAs diary as the basis for the book. I would encourage anyone thinking of buying this book to read the excerpts available through the "Look Inside" feature. Nagel continues the exact same paragraph structure throughout the entire book. The book is strictly chronological, basically following a "then this happened, then this happened, and then this happened..." approach that is about as compelling as a high school level history assignment. Nagel treats events big and small with the same level of detail (not much) and never elaborates on events that seem to provide an opportunity for adding interest or bringing the reader to a better understanding of John Quincy Adams and his place in history. I would call this a "feather duster" biography - it glides along the surface without ever taking the time to go into any depth.

Those interested in learning about JQAs presidency will be the most disappointed. Nagel explains that he only devotes a chapter to JQAs presidency because JQA himself did not think his presidency was very important. This is an absurd defense and a smokescreen for the fact that he did not do the necessary research. In fact, the chapter devoted to JQAs presidency is mostly about events that happened to JQA during his presidency unrelated to his presidency.

In conclusion, I will call this book exactly what it is - an abridgement and paraphrased version of JQAs diary and a very poor one at that. I am still perplexed at how so many others found this book satisfactory, but I found it to be the worst biography that I have ever read.

Very readable and entertaining
On the one hand this is a well written and highly readable book.It does a much better job of focusing on the personal life of JQA than most biographies of people from this era.It gave a different perspective on Abigail Adams than I've seen other places and it also does not take his assertion of not seeking public office at face value, which so many other biographies do.

The stated purpose of the author is to explore JQA as a person, and he succeeds.But the glossing over of the events of the day is quite glaring in a few cases.For example, I think JQA's role in the genesis of the Monroe Doctrine gets only 2 pages.And he really didn't explore the "corrupt bargain" around the election of 1824.He explores some of the the facts around the election but, not it's impact on the American public and role in the rise of Jacksonian Democracy.

A Private Life - YES! ... A Public Life - Sort of?
This books primary source is John Quincy Adams (JQA) remarkable diary, which spans a period of over 60 years, for the 1780's to the 1840's. Thanks to this source, the author delivers on his promise to describe the private life of JQA. I think the author is less successful at giving the reader an understanding of JQA's public life. The book contains a very detailed account of the life style, personality, character, and intellectual pass times of Adams, but it fails to put his life in historical context, at least from a "BIG Picture" perspective. I believe this is what the author intended, so it is really up to the reader to decide if this is the type of biography they wish to read. As a meticulous study of the inner workings of a man who was at the center of American politics from it's founding to the period just before the civil war the book is well worth reading. But if you are like me, you will be left wanting to read more. ... Read more

Book Description
An intellectual dialogue of the highest plane achieved in America, the correspondence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson spanned half a century and embraced government, philosophy, religion, quotidiana, and family griefs and joys. First meeting as delegates to the Continental Congress in 1775, they initiated correspondence in 1777, negotiated jointly as ministers in Europe in the 1780s, and served the early Republic—each, ultimately, in its highest office. At Jefferson's defeat of Adams for the presidency in 1800, they became estranged, and the correspondence lapses from 1801 to 1812, then is renewed until the death of both in 1826, fifty years to the day after the Declaration of Independence.

Lester J. Cappon's edition, first published in 1959 in two volumes, provides the complete correspondence between these two men and includes the correspondence between Abigail Adams and Jefferson. Many of these letters have been published in no other modern edition, nor does any other edition devote itself exclusively to the exchange between Jefferson and the Adamses. Introduction, headnotes, and footnotes inform the reader without interrupting the speakers. This reissue of The Adams-Jefferson Letters in a one-volume unabridged edition brings to a broader audience one of the monuments of American scholarship and, to quote C. Vann Woodward, 'a major treasure of national literature.' ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Not a book about History, this IS History
Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall and to be able to share in the thoughts and happenings of important places and people?Well, if your desires in that regard include the office of the Presidency of the United States and the early days following the American Revolution, that is exactly what this book provides.

As was typical of statesmen of that day, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams maintained a lengthy personal and professional correspondance the subjects of which were both mundane and highly intellectual.This book takes that correspondance, chronologically arranges it and then groups it according the characteristics of the time and the themes of their correspondance.As an additional bonus, John's wife Abigail Adams is included as well.

My attraction to this volume was to seek clarity and focus on several questions that are quite relevant to today.What was meant and intended by the concept of Separation of Church and State and what was the philisophic and religious thinking of there two important figures?There's no shortage of resources out there to tell you what these men thought, the context of their society and usually as an added bonus how these matters in one way or another support the agenda or perspective of the one putting the source together.

At some point however, if you really want to grapple with these issues or just understand the times and importance of these two men, there is no substitute for simply reading and allowing them to speak for themselves.

The added benefit of reading it through in its entirity is that you are not subjected to the judgement of another as to what is significant, what isn't and you aren't relying upon snippets and quotes that may or may not be in context and may or may not be representative of all that either man had to say upon a certain matter.

Certainly, this is just a small cross-section of all that these two men wrote and by itself there is much more that should be added.However, more than any other correspondance preserved from that day that these men engaged in, this was an exchange between men who considered the other his equal and for whom, with exceptions in time periods that are noted, mutual respect and a desire to explain themselves to one another motivated a candor and depth of intimacy that is difficult to find in other sectors.

Certainly, any student of American History needs this resource as a reference and as such it affords a ready means to add information and topically flip through the pages to see what each man had to say on a particular subject.

Every such student though, in my opinion, owes it to themselves, at least once, to just sit down and read the entire volume.Do this, and you'll have a handle upon the style of communication of the day, a feeling for many of the issues of the day and how they were viewed by the participants who did not have the advantage of knowing at the time how something would resolve.Idiosyncrasies in language and social custom will become more self-evident and the chances of being mislead by a quote isolated from its context will diminish considerably.

In short, for anyone who loves History, this is an experience not to be missed.

The footnotes and introductory passages to the different sections in my opinion do a remarkably good job of providing the reader with just enough context and outside information so that the letters themselves make sense and are not misunderstood.The reader is not told what to think about the letters per se, but rather equipped to make a better informed evaluation and come to their own conclusions.Those elements make the book valuable as well.

5 stars if ever there was a book worthy of 5 stars; again, this IS history.

Bart Breen

Meet John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
Out second and third presidents began their political career as friends, fell out, and then fortunately became friends again.In this wonderful collection of personal letters we see not only the men but the times until their deaths July 4, 1826.One of our most beloved presidents and most mis-understood are brought into reality by this collection.They were after all both remarkable men and human beings.

Throw Away the Text Books
Throw Away the texbooks. As others have said this is our Real History and Heritage. There is more to be found here on Ethics and Intergrity than in any of the pogressively vaporous decriptions of these men and their times. Imagine the chief architects of the Great Experiment in Representstve Democracy. Adversaries at the Constitutional Congress; ememies over the the transition from Adam's Presidency to Jefferson's. And then THESE! Conciliation and repect and eventually true affection - The founding fathers in thier own words - asessing what they had wrought - the good, the bad, the ugly - all passsed through that wondeful 18-19th Century Prose. Throw away the text books. Integrity was the founding principle of Taoism; Ethics the founding princple of Socratic/Platonic discouse. Adams and Jefferson knew this. Many Americans are waking up astounded by the lack of these two foundational elements in our modern system of governance. There is more to be learn of governance,literature and critical thinking on any page than there is in an entire high-school(and most college) curricula. Jefferson and Adams are stirring, stirring - and this can only be a Good Thing.

Just what I was hoping for
This collection of historic dialogue is just what I was looking for.The simply and powerfully reprints the letters between Adams, the older more conservative thought leader for a nation, and Jefferson, the quiet country Gentleman who gave voice to that nation.This chronilogical collection of letters bring to life the common bond that brought together and then sustained these two giants; the love of well formed thoughts and learning.The addition of the Abigal to Jefferson letters adds a deeply spiritual and personal tough.A great tool for understanding the thoughts and arguments behind the norming and forming of the United States.

Not just for historians
I have a hard time reading straightforward history. Usually, I would rather read fictionalized or storified versions of history.This is my first effort at reading original sources like letters of historical figures.So it was with real trepidation that I started reading.

It has been so worth it!The words and ideas of these two great men (and one great woman) are really interesting. The ideas that they discussed and fought over resonate into today's political discussions.What makes it all so much more interesting is the falling out that they had and the eventual reconcilliation.

Still, if you are like me, there are times when you may want to skim just a little.There is only so much reading about the commerce of the New England Whale Oil that I can take.Ride through it though...the good sections are very good and sometimes mixed into the dull sections. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Should be mandatroy reading in college
John Adams is clearly one of the leading thinkers not only regarding Risk Management, but alsodecision-making where risk is involved. If you are expecting a book that limits itself to accident prevention and the purchase of insurance, you will be dilightfully suprised to find that Adams provides universal frameworks that apply to the entire universe of risk. Nor is this merely an ivory tower philosophical romp. Adams applies his frameworks to everything from the value of infant car seats to global warming to "zero accident" policiesin the workplace and does so with wit and empirical data. His conclusions are often very counterintuitive, but he provides the data to back up his conclusions, often with surprising results (for example, that mandatory infant car seats was correlated with an increase in infant deaths in auto accidents and that seat belt laws did not decrease injuries in auto accidents).

The reader cannot help but benefit from Adam's wisdom, and he will enjoy the experience as well. The book is writen so well that I finished it with sadness; I was hoping that it would go on for at least another 100 pages. Having read scores of risk related articles and books, I can attest to the rarity of this feeling--I am usually begging for the end at about page 10. It takes great ideas and a masterful pen to acheive this, and Adams has both in abundance. If you are in the risk or safety professions (or work in the political realm) this book is required reading.

Challenge Your Risk Foundation
This book is a by product of a research project called "Risk and Rationality."

It represents a combination of risk compensation and cultural theory.The former posits all human beings have a risk thermostat.The latter illuminates a world of plural rationalities; it seeks to explain unresolved risks in terms of the differences in premises from which the participants argue.

It draws the following conclusions:

1. Everyone is managing risk.
2. Since we are dealing with risks, they are all guessing.
3. Their guesses are influenced by their beliefs.
4. Their behavior is influenced by their guesses.
5. Safety interventions do not influence risk propensities.
6. You will never capture "objective risk."

This book is a gem.It is well-written, counterintuitive, jargon-free and amusing.It will challenge your assumptions on risk management.

Great book!
This is an outstanding little book -- very insightful and thoroughly enjoyable. I am a pediatrician who has been involved with writing practice guidelines to prevent a very low probability but devastating outcome (brain damage following jaundice in newborns).The discussion of different types of people with different attitudes towards risk helped clarify some of the dynamics of the guideline committees I have been on.In fact, I liked the book so much I sent a copy to the head of the current committee working on these guidelines.

I also like it when people question dogma, and point out ways in which our previous experience and perspectives influence the way we perceive reality. For example, the possibility that use of seat belts by drivers might shift some injuries from themselves to pedestrians and cyclists had never occurred to me.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in risk.

Thomas B. Newman, MD, MPH
Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Pediatrics
University of California, San Francisco

Risk CompensationTheory - How Can We Use It?
"Risk" by John Adams is one of those rare gems, a book which uncovers a nugget of truth about human behaviour, namely Risk Compensation Theory. Why do we take risks, especially on the roads, in cars, in dangerous situations? Why do some people take more risks than others? Apparently we have risk thermostats which we set to different levels of risk aversion. I saw the tv programme which covered this topic first and then I read the book by Mr. Adams. I was very impressed by the depth of research supporting his theories and by the graphs showing the different rates of fatalities for male/female drivers, for different countries or for different age groups. But I wonder: have we had too much analysis and not enough action at this stage? The trend of fatalities per 1,000 of the population or per 1,000 vehicles on the roads may be coming down in some countries but this is little consolation when the total number of deaths is staying steady or rising worldwide. 25 million have died already and perhaps another billion have been injured.It is time to try another approach.

"Autogeddon" by Heathcote Williams was a brilliant poetic diatribe on the havoc which cars can cause but it offered no solutions to the problem. "Risk" analyses in detail why we takethe risks which cause this havoc, but equally offers no complete solutions. "The Joy of Motion" by John B. Gilmore goes a step further and offers a solution to the problems of transport which allows us to take risks and enjoy the thrill of motion at the same time. If you wish to find out more about this book then please email me.

as gripping as a Grisham
There are few works of nonfiction which I have been inspired to read inone sitting.Adams' _Risk_ is one of those few. It's more than merely accessible:it's fascinating.The writing is more than merely competent: it's enjoyable.Like the best Grisham novels, _Risk_ tells a tale of danger, skulduggery, bureaucracy, wrongful death, human nature, research, reasoning, the revelation and concealment of evidence, and the overturningof conventional beliefs and outcomes.

Adams opens for the lay reader a window into the jargon-laden field of riskassessment and risk management.He brings to the table two qualitiesusually firmly segregated in the literature:a solid, rationalist facilitywith the traditional tools of the trade (scientific method, mathematics,statistics, data visualization), and an honest and humane assessment ofthe incalculable and the social (human variability, social equity, adaptivefeedback, and chaotic systems).

Adams' work is brilliantly contrarian, neither eccentric nor slipshod.Hechallenges the conventional dogma of regulatory safety authorities the worldover;he cites verifiable figures from reputable sources to show that theauthoritarian approach to risk management has not lived up to its overconfidentinitial promises.Further, he documents specific cases in which this failurehas been denied and concealed, rather than admitted, confronted and used asa springboard to new approaches and more creative thinking.

Adams' particular field of expertise is road/traffic safety, which he hadstudied for some 15 years at the time of writing.He uses several examplesfrom this realm in the book.He recounts the peculiar history, for example,of mandatory seat belt legislation.Of the eighty principalities and regionswhich enacted such laws, over twenty years later only one (the UK) offerstime-series data which support the initial claims for national traffic fatalityreduction.

Yet throughout the industrial world, the axiom "seatbelts save lives" is justthat -- axiomatic.The average reader may find this story very disturbing; the beneficial result of seatbelt legislation is almost a religious dogma forresidents of the industrial West.Yet it is hard to dismiss Adams' sobercollection and presentation of data.His numbers are not from outlaw or revisionistsources;they are official statistics from the same countries whichpassed the laws.

It's obvious (and crash tests demonstrate) that seatbelt-type restraints mustprevent vehicle occupants from rattling around inside a car during a crash,and thereby mitigate injury and/or fatality.Adams asks, therefore, how itcan possibly happen that there were not sudden, dramatic, documented reductionsin total traffic fatalities for whole nations, after seatbelt laws were enforced?

In answering this and other similar questions of "safety engineering" Adams introduces us to a fascinating problem in risk management theory: "risk homeostasis" or "risk compensation".Individuals, he argues,have a personal "risk thermostat", a risk level at which they arecomfortable.If their sense of personal safety is enhanced byprotective gear (or even by public information campaigns) then theirbehaviour becomes correspondingly riskier, until the "set point" of theindividual risk thermostat is reached.

Since the risk per individual per hour of traffic injury or fatality isvery small, only a slight deviation in behaviour is necessary to raise itsignificantly.If a driver drives a little faster, brakes a little harder,corners a little more aggressively because of being strapped in securely,then this might easily negate (or more than negate) the risk reduction providedby the seatbelt itself.

In support of this theory, Adams offers the troubling increase in pedestrianand cyclist deaths that immediately followed the UK seatbelt law.If driversdrive a little more dangerously, says Adams, it makes sense that more vulnerableroad users would bear the brunt of the increased risk.

Were it not for this sincere concern for social justice, Adams might easilybe dismissed as yet another libertarian.Many a safety-legislation skeptic'sargument begins and ends with individual rights, resistance to "nanny" legislation,etc.Adams asks a tougher question:if safety means *everyone's* safety, doestraditional traffic safety engineering really work?Or does it just shuffle therisk around, making it safer to drive a car more dangerously, but imposing more risk on pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, etc?

This discussion occupies only a chapter or two of this thought-provoking book.Other chapters cover such diverse topics as:a taxonomy of personality types and their responses to risk;virtual risks versus immediate risks; and the fundamental contradictions of "cost/benefit analysis". Adams is forthright in criticizing the narrowness of the traditional highway andtraffic engineers' vision."Road safety engineers" consider their work successfulif the fatality/injury rate declines on a given stretch of road.But the fatality rate may have fallen because people gave up walking or biking in thatarea.As long as the incident rate is low, the road is deemed "safe" -- eventhough residents and locals may know very well that it is dangerous, and makelong detours to avoid it.

Adams argues convincingly that this disconnect between people's real experienceon the ground, and the abstract perceptions of planners and authorities, is aserious and intensifying problem. The ingenious adaptibility of human beingsto dangerous situations means that the engineers may be presented with falsesuccess (a dangerous road looks "safe" because of avoidance response) or withintractable riskiness (risk compensation defeating imposed engineering solutions). Many of the traditionalist solutions into which we pour millions of dollars may simply not work, and the way we measure our success may be faulty as well.

_Risk_ is an excellent introduction to the challenging work of John Franklin,Mayer Hillman, Robert Davis, and other members of the "new school" of road safety analaysis.It is a well-researched, well-written, and deeplyprovoking book._Risk_ should be *required* reading for all traffic engineers,police, safety analysts, city planners, parents, insurance company executives,and economists.For the reader with an open mind, _Risk_ will raise morequestions than it answers; it offers some really interesting new ways tothink about and discuss risk. ... Read more

Book Description
John Adams didn't enjoy traveling. He much preferred to stay home with his wife and children. But John Adams also had a dream: He wanted to see the thirteen colonies free from English rule. He wanted to see the creation of a new country -- the United States of America. John Adams did whatever was needed to make his dream come true.

... Read more

Book Description
Dear Reader:

The Childhood of Famous Americans series, seventy years old in 2002, chronicles the early years of famous American men and women in an accessible manner. Each book is faithful in spirit to the values and experiences that influenced the person¹s development. History is fleshed out with fictionalized details, and conversations have been added to make the stories come alive to today¹s reader, but every reasonable effort has been made to make the stories consistent with the events, ethics, and character of their subjects.

These books reaffirm the importance of our American heritage. We hope you learn to love the heroes and heroines who helped shape this great country. And by doing so, we hope you also develop a lasting love for the nation that gave them the opportunity to make their dreams come true. It will do the same for you.

Happy Reading!

The Editors

... Read more

Book Description
Until recently rescued by David McCullough, John Adams has always been overshadowed by Washington and Jefferson. Volatile, impulsive, irritable, and self-pitying, Adams seemed temperamentally unsuited for the presidency. Yet in many ways he was the perfect successor to Washington in terms of ability, experience, and popularity. Possessed of a far-ranging intelligence, Adams took office amid the birth of the government and multiple crises. Besides maintaining neutrality and regaining peace, his administration created the Department of the Navy, put the army on a surer footing, and left a solvent treasury. One of his shrewdest acts was surely the appointment of moderate Federalist John Marshall as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Though he was a Federalist, he sought to work outside the still-forming party system. In the end, this would be Adams's greatest failing and most useful lesson to later leaders. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A decent overview of his ideas, theories, and presidential policies.
This isn't much of a biography. It gives just a quick history of Mr. Adams early life. It mainly focuses on his political and philosophical career and his feuds with Jefferson and Hamilton. It does a good job of reviewing his term as second president and the policies and precedents he initiated. This book may be a stepping stone to a more comprehensive analysis of Mr. Adams's personal and political life.

A fascinating discusion of Adam's thought and life
It hasn't been hard to notice that John Adams's reputation has been undergoing a serious rehabilitation in recent years.Joseph Ellis in particular has been dedicated to revising our understandings of both Adams and his nemesis/friend Thomas Jefferson.In his PASSIONATE SAGE:THE CHARACTER AND LEGACY OF JOHN ADAMS, FOUNDING BROTHERS: THE REVOLUTIONARY GENERATION, and AMERICAN SPHINX: THE CHARACTER OF THOMAS JEFFERSON, Ellis has been challenging a long established scenario in which the arch conservative John Adams was pitted against the populist liberal Thomas Jefferson for the political destiny of America, and the hero Jefferson triumphed over the mildly villainous Adams.Ellis has been questioning whether any part of this scenario makes any sense, whether Adams is at all a villain, and whether Jefferson is nearly as heroic.He has done this not by asserting the virtues of conservativism, but whether Adams has been correctly understood at all, both by his contemporaries and by subsequent generations.This reevaluation of Adams was continued by the spectacular and unanticipated mega-bestseller by David McCullough of 2001.This process of reassessment is clearly carried forward by John Patrick Diggins.For the record, I find the rehabilitation of Adams by these and other writers to be both welcome and highly convincing.

For two hundred years, our view of Adams came very much through the lenses of his critics and opponents.The truism that history is written from the standpoint of the victors is perhaps truer of Adams than any other major political figure in United States history.Adams was said to be a closet monarchist, a favorer of aristocracy.In the face of this criticism, Adams explicitly challenged Jefferson to point to a single passage in any of his writings that endorses monarchy or aristocracy.In fact, if one reads extensively in Adams works, as argued by Ellis, Diggins, and McCullough, one finds instead a powerful and subtle critique of the dangers of the development and influence of an economic elite, placing him at the opposite extreme of Alexander Hamilton, whose ideal of government came very close to the espousal of plutocracy.Adams did hope for the emergence of natural elites, but this was based on ability and character, not on wealth.Contained in the reassessment of Adams is implied a questioning of whether Adams is the arch conservative he is often portrayed as being.The case for Adams's conservativism is based largely on his belief in monarchism, his favoring aristocracy, his support for a bicameral Congress, his looking to the past for guidance, and his opposition to the French Revolution.As these authors have shown, Adams transparently did not favor monarchy or the growth of an aristocratic class and a bicameral legislature in the United States has not resulted in the Senate being a sort of House of Lords.Today many leftist historians have found grounds for critiquing the French Revolution, and a host of leftist political figures have found inspiration for their beliefs in the past (not least Karl Marx, who was a student of the Greeks and Romans).Furthermore, Adams was hardly a passionate capitalist, and was suspicious of a life devoted to the acquisition of wealth.In fact, if you compare Adams and Jefferson to that modern conservative icon Ronald Reagan, it is hard to find many issues that Adams would not differ sharply on from Reagan, while one can see a number of points of contact between Adams and Reagan.Diggins, in fact, finds numerous points of contact between Adams's political writings and many French radical writers of the late 20th century.I will say that as a leftist myself, I find much to love in Adams's thought.I share his fear of the negative effects that economic elites have on the democratic process, his belief in the need for a strong central government to protect citizens fromthe pernicious influence of greed (Adams would understand my fear of deregulation), and his instincts that government rather than less or no government is a better safeguard of individual liberty.Diggins rightly states that the American president who would most closely incarnate Adams's principles would be Teddy Roosevelt, who envisioned government as the means of breaking trusts and promoting economic justice.

Of all the books in the Schlesinger series on the American presidents, this is probably the one that I found most provocative intellectually.It is a dense, rich book, in large part because Diggins focuses more on the thought of Adams than his life. Diggins is more intent on explaining Adams ideas than the various events in his life.In one sense this is a weakness as a biography, but because his discussion of Adams's ideas is so clear and interesting, it more than makes up for the lack of biographical detail.I do regret some of the sketchiness of the biographical narrative.For instance, he doesn't' deal in any detail on how Adams became either vice president or president.This contrasts sharply with the rather deep discussion of Adams's ideas.This is in line with Diggins's role as apologist for Adams.On the purely historical side, most of Diggins's effort is put into dispelling the myth that the election of 1800 represented the defeat of Federalism by Republicanism (that's Jeffersonian Republicanism, not what we associate today with the GOP).I personally found this section less interesting that the sections dealing with Adams's thought.

I would strongly encourage anyone reading this volume to consider